The combination of direct hub access with sequential item-to-item movement, balancing random access against linear consumption. A hub at the top lists the full sequence; actors can pick any item or step through them one by one, returning to the hub whenever they want to jump elsewhere.
Behavioural position
- Browsing — hub overview enables pattern recognition and scanning
- Navigating — direct access via hub when target is known
- Sequential progression via back/next when linear consumption is preferred
Variants
- Gallery pyramid: Hub shows thumbnails, items are full images.
- List pyramid: Hub shows titles/descriptions in list format.
- Card pyramid: Hub shows rich cards with images, titles, descriptions.
- Numbered pyramid: Hub explicitly numbers items, progress indication emphasised.
Consequences
- the sequence is legible as a whole and enterable at any point, so an actor who wants the order gets it and an actor who wants item nine doesn't have to earn it through the first eight
- the hub has to state the shape of the sequence — how long it is, where this item sits in it — or the offer of sequential reading is one the actor can't judge
- progress is now something the actor accumulates and expects to be remembered; a sequence that forgets where they stopped is one they restart
Resources & references
Tidwell, Brewer, Valencia (2020) Designing Interfaces, 3rd ed.
Appears in
Structuring the space
- Laying out the space, step 2 — Offer the sequence, allow jumps
Related patterns
Complements
- Deep linking — sharing and bookmarking items
- Filtering — for large collections
Alternatives
- Pan and zoom — for sequences that could be spatial
- Step by step — for strict sequences
- Multilevel tree — for hierarchical content
- Hub and spoke — when items don't form sequences
Related to
- Intent & Interaction — hub enables direct targeting